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  Theatre in Review: Balls (59E59)
Maybe you had to be there, but the Billie Jean King-Bobby Riggs Battle of the Sexes tennis match was a pop culture publicity stunt that became a watershed moment. Nothing changed overnight, but the defeat of Riggs -- a vulgar provocateur ...
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Theatre in Review: Party Face (City Center Stage II)
Whatever you think of Party Face -- and, sooner or later, we're going to have get around to that -- Hayley Mills is a delight. Chicly dressed in satiny pants, a bolero jacket, and low heels, her face wreathed in ...
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Theatre in Review: Miles for Mary (Playwrights Horizons)
Miles for Mary finds comedy gold in the least likely of situations, a series of faculty meetings at an Ohio high school in 1998. The attendees are members of the planning committee for an annual telethon, named after a ...
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Theatre in Review: The Homecoming Queen (Atlantic Theater Stage II)
The playwright Ngozi Anyanwu has quite a potentially wrenching story to tell in The Homecoming Queen, and I only wish she had better control of her material. The title character is Kelechi, born in Nigeria but long a ...
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Theatre in Review: The Thing With Feathers (The Barrow Group)
That Scott Organ is a sly one: He opens his new play on such a note of mundane naturalism that you might begin to feel your eyes glazing over at the prospect of yet another family drama with nowhere to go. But trust the playwright - ...
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Theatre in Review: X: Or, Betty Shabazz v. The Nation (The Acting. Co./Theatre at St. Clement's)
There are three strong, striking performances at the heart of Marcus Gardley's new play, all of which are worth your attention. It's certainly no surprise how Roslyn Ruff dominates the stage; she has done it many times before ...
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Theatre in Review: Until the Flood (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater)
In her latest work, Dael Orlandersmith takes a leaf from Anna Deavere Smith's book, channeling a chorus of voices who comment on the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, the aftermath of which tore apart the town of Ferguson, Missouri, ...
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Theatre in Review: Hindle Wakes (Mint Theater Company)
There's a slashing irony sitting in plain view in Hindle Wakes, and it's to the credit of Stanley Houghton, its author, that the audience is left to discover it for itself. Written in 1910 and set in Lancashire, in the ...
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Theatre in Review: The Undertaking (The Civilians/59E59)
Those intrepid investigatory theatre-makers, The Civilians, have often dared to go where angels fear to tread, bringing enlightenment and enlivening humor to such big, intractable issues as evangelical Christianity (This ...
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Theatre in Review: Ballyturk (St. Ann's Warehouse)/Disco Pigs (Irish Repertory Theatre)
It's Enda Walsh Month in New York, with two different companies producing works by one of the most mandarin voices in Irish drama today. Ballyturk, from 2014, begins on a nerve-shreddingly assaultive note, with sound ...
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Theatre in Review: LaBute New Theater Festival (St. Louis Actors' Studio/59E59)
Not for the first time, the LaBute New Theater Festival consists of entries that, with their focus on high-concept premises and plot twists, can best be described as of the school of Neil LaBute. The evening kicks off with "Hate ...
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Theatre in Review: John Lithgow: Stories by Heart (Roundabout Theatre Company)
These nights John Lithgow is at home at the American Airlines Theatre, drawing us together and making the auditorium seem half its size with the sheer mastery of his art. (I don't care how many residences the actor may possess; the ...
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Theatre in Review: The Girl Who Jumped Off the Hollywood Sign (Theater for the New City)
In real life, the girl who jumped off the Hollywood sign was Peg Entwistle, who enjoyed a busy few years on Broadway but struggled in the film industry, earning only one credit -- ninth-billed in a thriller starring Irene Dunne -- before ...
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Theatre in Review: Mankind (Playwrights Horizons)
The main interest offered by Mankind is the spectacle of a playwright painting himself so thoroughly into a corner that, by intermission, it's impossible to see how he can extricate himself. As it happens, he can't. Robert ...
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Theatre in Review: After/Margarete (Under the Radar/The Public Theater)
The Under the Radar Festival, an excellent venue to take the measure of the theatre's current avant-garde, has kicked off with two very different pieces about the nature of life, perception, memory, and identity. Together, they offer a ...
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Theatre in Review: How to Be a Rock Critic (Under the Radar/The Public Theater)
The title of How to Be a Rock Critic is misleading; a better one might be A Guide to Career Burnout Before Thirty. Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen have devised this solo show from the writings of Lester ...
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Theatre in Review: The Mushroom Cure (Theatre 80)/Cruel Intentions (Le Poisson Rouge)
I rang out 2017 with a couple of oddball novelty attractions, either of which might amuse you but neither of which should be considered mandatory viewing. The Mushroom Cure, a solo show starring the stand-up comedian Adam ...
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Theatre in Review: The Children (Manhattan Theatre Club/Samuel J. Friedman Theatre)
In her new play, Lucy Kirkwood has imagined an honestly nightmarish situation: a Fukushima Daichi-style disaster on the east coast of England, spilling God only knows how many gallons of irradiated water into the sea and making a ...
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Theatre in Review: Twelfth Night, or What You Will (Fiasco Theater/Classic Stage Company)
I have a question for the members of Fiasco Theater and their directors, Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld: Where's the fire? After a charming opening, featuring a beguilingly sung sea chantey -- the play begins with a shipwreck, ...
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Theatre in Review: A Regular Little Houdini (Flying Bridge Theatre Limited/59E59)
A Regular Little Houdini is written and performed by Daniel Llewelyn-Williams, who turns out to be a regular little spellbinder. Actually, "little" doesn't do him justice: He is a king-size stage presence with leading ...
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